1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicular pedal supporting structure capable of displacing a trodden face of a pedal substantially forwards with respect to a vehicle when a pedal bracket is displaced backwards with respect to the vehicle together with a vehicle-body-side constituent member as a result of application of a predetermined external force from the front side of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, various arts for controlling displacement of a vehicular pedal such as a brake pedal or the like in the case of application of a predetermined external force from the front side of a vehicle have been developed for the purpose of improving the performance of protecting passengers. One of such arts is proposed by the present applicant and is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 10-236288. This art will be outlined below.
As shown in FIG. 12, a brake pedal 150 of suspension type is swingably supported by a pedal bracket 152. The pedal bracket 152 has a generally U-shaped longitudinal cross section with an open bottom. A base plate 154 generally in the shape of a rectangular flat plate is welded to a front end portion of the pedal bracket 152, and constitutes part of the pedal bracket 152. The base plate 154 is fixed to a dash panel 156 inside a cabin, whereby the front portion of the pedal bracket 152 is mounted to the dash panel 156.
On the other hand, an instrument panel reinforce 158 as a high-strength member is disposed substantially behind the dash panel 156 with respect to a vehicle, with the longitudinal direction of the instrument panel reinforce 158 being substantially coincident with the lateral direction of the vehicle. A slide guide 160 is disposed protruding substantially forwards with respect to the vehicle, and a guide face (inclined face) 160A is provided on a lower face of the slide guide 160. A base end portion of the slide guide 160 is fixed to the instrument panel reinforce 158 at a predetermined position in the longitudinal direction. An angle-like coupling bracket 162 is fixed to a tip end portion of the slide guide 160. Correspondingly, a slide guide bracket 164 having a generally U-shaped cross section is stuck to an upper rear-end portion of the pedal bracket 152. A top wall portion of the slide guide bracket 164 and a bottom wall portion of the coupling bracket 162 are connected by a rivet 166.
According to the aforementioned arrangement, if the dash panel 156 is displaced substantially backwards with respect to the vehicle when a predetermined external force is applied from the front side of the vehicle, the rivet 166 connecting the slide guide bracket 164 and the coupling bracket 162 together is sheared. Thus, the slide guide bracket 164 and the coupling bracket 162 are disconnected from each other. As a result, the slide guide bracket 164 comes into abutment on the guide face 160A of the slide guide 160, and then slides along the guide face 160A substantially downwards with respect to the vehicle. During this sliding movement of the slide guide bracket 164, the pedal bracket 152 is plastically deformed and rotationally displaced around the front end side thereof substantially downwards with respect to the vehicle. As a result, a pedal pad 168 of the brake pedal 150 is displaced substantially forwards with respect to the vehicle.
If a rotational displacement structure based on a slide mechanism as described above is adopted herein, a load input to the dash panel 156 is input to the slide guide 160 and hence to the side of the instrument panel reinforce 158 via the pedal bracket 152. In general, it is preferred that the load thus input to the side of the instrument panel reinforce 158 be low.
Further, a vehicular pedal supporting structure of this sort often tends to be mechanically complicated. Basically, however, if this vehicular pedal supporting structure adopts a simple mechanism with a reduced number of parts, it is easier to guarantee operational reliability, and a reduction in cost is achieved as well. It can be concluded, therefore, that structural simplification is also an important theme to be pursued.